During the period 1600-1692, 91 people were convicted of witchcraft in Finnmark and burned to death at the stake, most of them here in Vardø. In this vast and barren landscape, Peter Zumthor and Louise Bourgeois collaborated on the design of a monument commemorating the persecution and murder of these 91 people. On the cold plains of Finnmark, where the presence of people is still felt most strongly at night when light is lit in the windows of the houses that are still occupied, Zumthor conceived a long room stretching along the edge of the sea, with 91 lit windows.

Bourgeois added the burning; a metal chair lit by a gas flame and overlooked by a ring of seven large mirrors. She asked Zumthor to design the enclosure of blackened glass panels. The structure of this architectural commemoration is reduced to a minimum, and moves with the breezes from the sea.